In this clean, clear, striking work by Christopher Pratt, we are aware we are looking into a seascape, but little else is certain. Pratt’s expression of the lifting ice-fog produces a uniformly overcast sky, leaving the time of day unclear. The water extending to the lowest edge of the image also leaves our location as viewer tentative. Are we standing on dry land, on a dock, or even on a boat at sea? In other similar examples such as Ice, Moon, and Tanker, 2007 (sold by Heffel in May 2023), the moon and tanker ship of the title give us bearings by which to navigate the image and our experience of it; here, our relationship is left much more ambiguous. The result is a daringly minimal expression of the Canadian East Coast school of Magic Realism begun by Pratt’s one-time teacher at Mount Allison University, Alex Colville. Colville instilled a deep respect for technical rigour in his students, a lesson at which Pratt very much excelled. Here, he strips the image to only its most essential elements, providing an experience that is as unnervingly stark as it is existentially beautiful.